I don’t think anyone is asserting that international players don’t make the quality of the game better. The issue is that it may not be a zero sum game and that the costs may far outweigh the benefits. Who could argue that 20 year old high school football players would make for a more exciting game? If all the sprinters were on steroids, wow, that would be amazing to watch! The 12 year old gymnasts at Olympics could sure do things the older competitors couldn’t.
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I follow high school water polo fairly closely and talk to kids regularly about recruitment.
Solid players (not top 10, but ALL-CIF caliber) were regularly talking to several college coaches prior to COVID. Similarly talented kids are now lucky to get a response from 1 coach.
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With the current recruiting climate, it’s clear that the landscape is shifting rapidly. European players, transfer portal athletes, older and experienced junior college athletes (with new eligibility status), and top 5 or so recruits from high school programs have real and deep conversations with college coaches. The rest of the player pool — which includes a large number of capable and dedicated U.S. athletes — is left waiting, hoping that once those spots are filled, there’s still room for them. This was never the case in the past with our without international players!
This new dynamic is not just unfortunate — it is a real concern for the future of the sport in the U.S. As roster spots become scarce and pathways to collegiate play narrow, many young athletes will see fewer reasons to stay committed to water polo through high school. The ripple effect will be significant. We’re not just talking about missed opportunities for individuals — we’re talking about a real decline in the development of homegrown talent.
The sport we all love risks becoming less accessible, less inclusive, and ultimately, less sustainable at the grassroots level. If we’re serious about growing water polo in the U.S., this needs to be addressed head-on — not after the damage is already done.
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I wonder if this is part of the reason some programs are not transparent and exclusive to some without a true competitive process, think ODP and their academy program as an example. With opportunities becoming fewer, I think you will naturally see some insiders try and protect visibility and opportunity to known quantities. This would further erode the sport at the HS levels. We have seen parents with influence do things along these lines to get in with colleges in the past that are public and documented.
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To think all this could be solved by having roster limits on foreign students just like every European club has against foreign invasion. Simple. Until they change their rules we should create limits. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lost.
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Water polo has its own specific issues (foreign players, minimal appeal outside of California) but the bigger issue is the dumpster fire that is now D1 collegiate athletics. Post House-settlement, there’s going to be significantly less money to subsidize the non-revenue sports (US Olympic Com freaking out about this), and ADs are going to look to cut programs, particularly men’s programs. Right now every D1 water polo coach should be spending significant time forming alumni booster groups so they can self-fund/endow programs when the cuts start. If a coach isn’t having that conversation right now with his AD, he’s not doing his job. Seismic change is happening right now.
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100% agree with snowbird.
Not sure it’s feasible (or even legal), but someone with $$$ needs to step up and subsidize new programs (and even possibly existing). Some of the Ivys are fully endowed I believe.
The only schools that would benefit from limits on international players are UCLA, USC, Cal and Stanford. It would inhibit the chances of every other team to compete with them.
Putting in an artificial cap will only lead to a drop in quality at the college level which will certainly bleed into the ability of our national teams to compete. If folks want less international players they can convey that through the donor networks of the schools that they attended and the market will dictate a change.
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I do not think anyone is competing with UCLA, USC, Cal, or Stanford anyway. This is not about the Olympics or national team. This is about youth seeing a path to being able to play past HS and therefore avoiding a difficult future for club water polo in the US into the future. We can start another thread about the impact on National Teams and US Olympics due to international players, but that is another topic.
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The idea that our ability to compete on international stage will be diminished is a very minor consequence compared to the survival of the sport.
On a side note, is there any chance the academies eliminate varsity sports with the government’s doge efforts?
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There are a number of teams that would legitimately disagree that no one can compete with the big 4 … at times Pepperdine, Pacific, Princeton, Fordham etc
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I think we are talking about two levels of competition. Any given day yes, but until we see a non big 4 win a championship it isn’t comparable.
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If a kid from the youth National team goes to any Big-4 and rides the bench, never plays and quits the sport - nobody gets on the message boards and decries that as a “loss” to the sport - the “wasted” national team trainings and trips that could have gone to someone who would have “contributed”.
But if that same National team kid can’t use water polo to get into a big-4, and instead has to “settle” for LMU or UC Irvine - that’s somehow a tragedy? I just don’t see it.
So much of this conversation is centered around the Big-4 and I’d argue that’s 90% of the problem with our sport - this hyper focus on 4 schools. I get it - if I paid $50k/yr for a private HS education and lived in a $5mm house, Long Beach or San Jose State wouldn’t be my first choice either - but don’t complain about those non-big-4 schools looking abroad when the kids from the affluent powerhouse clubs won’t even give those coaches the time of day.
If anything, the kids (and their parents) need to broaden their horizons if they want to play and kids that are willing to look at non-traditional powers should be celebrated, not given the “are you sure?” treatment from their peers and coaches.
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Most of the kids I talk to are not settling for anything. They are not even getting a chance to settle.
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So no college coaches will call them back? Not even Penn-State Behrend (20 on the roster) or Whittier College (18 on the roster)? I’m just starting at the bottom of the NCAA RPI rankings and going up.
Modesto Junior College (only 12 guys on the roster) won’t call back?
Or is it more like the colleges they “think they should be able to go to” won’t call them back?
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Everyone should stop recommending kids go to a certain college that they wouldn’t consider without water polo just so they can play. That is a terrible suggestion. Want to go to USC but Mercyhurst is just as good of an option for you? No way!
The issue is the arms race is moving away from US HS players. This isn’t just the big 4 issue (and it’s barely UCLA, at all). Maybe players could go to Fordham, LMU or Pacific a few years ago, now, those spots are going to internationals. How long before that permeates to other schools. If college coaches need to win and their competing with older, more experienced international players, that is where the next school who fires it’s coach for losing will go. It’s pretty clear what is happening.
And, yes, I have heard that the military schools could move many varsity programs to club.
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Yes this is actually the case for National Team kids. Some don’t get a response from the Big 4 for whatever reason…and then the next tier of schools don’t respond cause they think those kids are going Big 4. They want kids who want to go there not as a Big 4 backup.
I’d argue if the next tier of schools recruited harder, they might be surprised what they would be hearing from top American recruits.
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Let’s run an experiment - we’ll create a firehose of talent from the Trinity League and we’ll aim that firehose at Long Beach State and see what happens.
In the North, Contra Costa county will steer all their best kids towards San Jose State and we’ll see what happens to SJSU’s abundance of foreign players.
This is our own doing, us, we did this - coaches looking at foreign talent is our own fault. The “big-4 and maybe 3 others” attitude that has permeated our sport, forever unchecked - this is the natural result. Coaches want domestic talent, they’re cheaper for scholarships and have better engagement as alumni, but you can only do so much with someone who swims a 100 free in 1:05 if it takes :49 to play this game.
Don’t like it? Encourage kids to look at playing time when making selections. Encourage kids that aren’t playing to transfer. On the non-power-4 teams doing well, encourage their best players to stay, even give to their NIL so they can keep them. Ostracize club / HS coaches that steer kids to the big schools no matter the lack of fit.
But please - don’t blame college coaches outside the big 4 for looking foreign when the majority of domestic kids won’t even consider 75% of the schools that field teams.
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Yeah, Princeton and Fordham who were cutting edge on internationals just can’t find enough US players to fill their roster 
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Arguing about foreign players on collegiate rosters has become water polo’s version of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Right now Stanford is subsidizing its athletics program to the tune of somewhere between $20M and $40M a year. Cal Athletics in 2024 lost $40M. And that’s before they have to kick in another $20M a year for revenue sharing. This is not sustainable! And to this grim fiscal picture, don’t forget that DC is now cutting indirect costs, freezing funds, and threatening to tax endowments. Sports are going to get cut everywhere. If you want to save your collegiate team, stop whining about foreign players and organize your alums. Make sure your AD knows you have deep pockets and can self-fund or will fight if they try to cut water polo.
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